This invention relates to process flows.
A process flow is a sequence of chemical, physical, or biological activities for the conversion, transport, or storage of material or energy. For example, process flows are used for the production of specialty chemical products, pharmaceutical products, fuels, cosmetics, and foodstuffs. Recipes include information related to the process flow for the production of a product. Recipes can also include definitions of resources such as equipment that is deployed to perform the process flow, as well as materials input to perform the process flow and output materials resulting from performance of the process flow.
There are different classes of recipes. General recipes (xe2x80x9cGRxe2x80x9d) include information related to the process flow independent of specific production resources. General recipes identify raw materials, relative quantities, and required processing, but lack specific information regarding a particular site or the resources available at that site. Site recipes (xe2x80x9cSRxe2x80x9d) include site-specific information related to the local constraints, such as language and available raw materials at a particular production locale. Master recipes (xe2x80x9cMRxe2x80x9d) include resource capabilities such as equipment deployable to perform a process flow, and describe activities for a specific production on a specific line. Master recipes can also include information that is specific to a process cell.
One use of process flows and recipes is in the manufacture and the production of products. In this case, a process flow typically represents some manufacturing or production operation. The information included in the process flow describes, e.g., the manufacturing or production process, raw materials, and available equipment.
The present invention provides methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for customizing process flows.
In general, in one aspect, a method for customizing a process flow includes receiving a recipe hierarchy describing the process flow. The hierarchy includes a higher level having a higher level element and a lower level having a lower level element. The process flow can be customized by receiving resource information describing resources deployable to perform the process flow, allocating a resource described by the resource information to the higher level element based on a criterion for performing a higher level activity in the process flow described by the higher level element, and determining operating instructions for the resource based on a lower level activity in the process flow described by the lower level element.
Implementations of this or any other aspect can include one or more of the following features. The received hierarchical recipe structure can be a general recipe describing the process flow. The process flow information can be customized to the resource information by creating a customized recipe hierarchy that includes the allocated resources and the determined operating instructions. The customized recipe hierarchy can be created by creating a master recipe.
The higher level of the recipe hierarchy can include two higher level elements The process flow information can be customized to the resource information by transferring the two higher level elements to the customized recipe hierarchy and defining a relationship between the two higher level elements in the customized recipe hierarchy. The relationship can be a time sequence of the elements.
The operating instructions can be determined by accessing a mapping rule describing deployment of the resource and determining operating instructions for the resource based on the accessed mapping rule.
The process flow information can be customized to the resource information by receiving a selection identifying a portion of the recipe hierarchy including the higher level element and the lower level element but excluding an undesired element. The undesired element can be excluded from resource allocation and operating instruction determination.
The process flow information can be customized to the resource information by identifying an input stream to the portion of the recipe hierarchy and adding a material in the input stream to a bill of materials for the customized recipe hierarchy.
In general, in another aspect, a computer program product for customizing a process flow includes instructions to cause a processor to receive a process flow description, receive a first resource description from a first remote system, customize the process flow description to the first resource description, receive a second resource description from a second remote system, and customize the process flow description to the second resource description. The process flow description describes a process flow. The first resource description describes resources deployable by the first remote system and the second resource description describes resources deployable by the second remote system. The product is tangibly stored on machine readable media.
Implementations of this or any other aspect can include one or more of the following features. The instructions cause the processor to receive a collection of destinations for the process flow description that has been customized to the first resource description. The instructions cause the processor to add an inspection characteristic to the process flow description that has been customized to the first resource description.
The instructions cause the processor to allocate a resource described in the first resource description to an activity described in the process flow description based upon a stringency of a resource criteria for the activity. The instructions cause the processor to create a bill of materials that includes information relating to materials used in the process flow.
The instructions cause the processor to access a first mapping rule describing deployment of a first resource described by the first resource description and access a second mapping rule describing deployment of a second resource described by the second resource description.
The instructions cause the processor to form a customized hierarchy to customize the process flow description to the second resource description. The instructions cause the processor to describe a material flow between elements in the customized hierarchy. The instructions cause the processor to receive changes to the process flow description while customizing to the first resource description.
The invention can be implemented to realize one or any combination of the following advantages. A system in accordance with the invention can quickly customize a process flow description to the particular resources that are deployable by multiple remote systems. When the process flow is used in manufacturing and production operations, the system enables a user to quickly and efficiently configure and adapt such manufacturing and production. (A user can include a person, a computer-program product, a computer system, or any combination thereof.) Moreover, the system can maintain control of the process flow description and change the process flow description during customization. Resources can be allocated to the process flow according to the needs of the activities in the process flow, and relationships between the activities in the process flow can be determined during customization. The customized process flow can be transmitted to one or more other systems. The other systems can be remote from each other and linked as part of a network. Inspection characteristics that describe desired traits of the process flow or materials in the process flow can be determined for each set of deployable resources. By storing information about manufacturing and production activities in coherent and adaptive structures, the system can quickly adapt the activities to create new product versions, store historical records of activities, and manufacture products under different conditions.